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Sunday, April 8, 2012

Top 5 Good Looking Gear Sets

When transmogrification was first announced I raised it to the skies as one of the best ideas Blizzard has had in the past year, throwing sentences around me like;

I can't even express how happy I am about this implementation.

and

Now I'll be able to finally wield my Benediction/Anathema in a raid with pride!

Then unfortunately Blizzard also decided to design tier 13 to not look completely retarded (*cough t11 cough*) so in the end I only ended up transmogrifying my staff into Anathema. As for every other character I've been too lazy to farm any nice gear since I don't care about them much enough to spend time on things like that (although I did still have the starter set for my DK which I then transmogrified into). So far, my usage of the transmogrifier has been, to put it mildly, limited.

However, the first glimpses of the upcoming tier made me think about it again since I am far from certain I want to run around looking like that. Right now I am only hoping things will improve, but in case they don't I need to have a plan B. There are many good looking sets for my priest to wear, but it's a dwarf which really limits my options. Don't get me wrong, I love dwarves and they are by far my favorite alliance race, but they do look stupid in many gear sets that otherwise look really cool - like tier 5, Arena Season 3, tier 8 and so on. Actually most sets unfortunately. This thought process travelled on in my head into "which are the coolest looking gear sets out there that aren't part of a tier set or similar?".

And here you have it, my top 5 list of gear sets that aren't part of a tier or arena set. If you disagree I am sorry, but you are wrong. (Special thanks to wowroleplaygear.com for the pictures).

5. Vanguard

The Vanguard set is one of those sets that fascinate me because it, as a proof of any violent feminists worst nightmare, looks completely different depending on whether it's worn by a male or female character, especially the chest piece. While male get a sturdy piece of plate, female get a plate bikini barely worth taking into a battle with stranded whales. But Zinn, why must you ruin everything, can't you just let sexy ladies be sexy without wanting to spread your hairy armpits everywhere? Yes, regardless of what the set says about the view of women and men in WoW (because frankly, none of them is especially flattering, with women being nothing but sexy objects and men being nothing but moronic blockheads (yes, I am looking at you Wrynn and Hellscream)), I still think the set looks good. It has a nice design and many varying color schemes for anyone who wants some variety (Lofty, Glorious, Imperial). My warrior would look awesome in it, she doesn't need a body covering armor to kick ass anyway.

4. Chief Brigadier

The Chief Brigadier set suffers from some similar features as the Vanguard set, by looking slightly different on male and female characters. But that color scheme is to die for. There is no way you can go wrong with fiery red on black, which is why so many people put bitching flames on their bitching Volvos. The only thing I could improve on this set would be the head piece (not shown, probably for that reason), because that raggy looking mail coif doesn't really do it for me. I think the Jaw of Repudiation head piece, or anything that looks similar to it, would fit that set perfectly.

3. Taunka Garb

Probably the most wholesome set in the list, I like the down to earthy style of the Taunka Garb a lot. It is perfectly designed to suit the snow-living taunkas, and I like the simplicity of it, yet it feels detailed and thought through. Most people would probably call it boring and bland, but if you look closely you can see the knitting in the leather. It gives me a wolfy sense of seriousness (don't mess with a serious wolf), and I like how it covers the entire body in a rough and tough looking armor - this isn't some fancy pansy prancing around in an armor barely covering the nipples. Yet again, I am not overly fond of the head piece - it suits the gear but I know most characters look stupid in it. I could live with that however.

2. Warped Leather

I remember the first time I found a Warped Leather piece and decided to dress it. I had obviously found Warped Leather pieces tons of times before, it's the kind of gray item that drops from every second mob on lower levels. For some reason I decided to check out what it looked like on my rogue (actually because he didn't have any better gear...), and I was instantly hooked. With a blue-black color combination that looked like a dusk sky, I knew I wanted to have the entire set on my rogue and I wanted it yesterday. Some pieces were available on the Auction House, from the ever lovely people who are bothered with putting up gray items there for no other benefit than making the odd weirdo collector happy. The rest had to be farmed, at which point the drop rate drastically dropped in what is known as the WoW-farming Paradox. When I eventually deleted that rogue and started a new one (don't ask me why, because I don't know) I made sure to save the Warped Leather set. The Warped Leather set is one of those sets that Blizzard have designed to look really good, but it was very rarely put into use. The time I had my rogue as my bank alt I ran around Orgrimmar wearing it, but since it's not transmogrifiable you won't ever see this in combat. Fortunately, the Clefthoof set looks exactly the same, and that is transmoggable! I especially love how it fades between black and blue from top to bottom.

1. Venomshroud

In a sense I am stupid to put this as my number one set, when there is really just one piece of the set I really like. But then, I really like that piece. The way a cat likes lying on your keyboard while you're playing. The shoulders, pants and actually most of the pieces don't look very good at all, but the chest is completely awesome. Worthy of a tier set, if you ask me, it has a huge spider covering the entire front of the chest (the dress piece, not the vest piece). I fell in love with it immediately when I found it, I even remember which mob it dropped from in Silverpine Forest. And it comes in a few really nice recolorings so you can choose between green on yellow, brown/red on yellow or teal on green and. They all have one thing in common though, they're probably the best looking robe in the game. Simple, with uncommon color combinations to make you look smashing regardless of going to a guild meeting, fighting Deathwing or getting married on the steps of the Stormwind cathedral. A dress for all occasions.

About Me

I'm Zinn, former healing priest extraordinaire of WoW, which I played between April 2005- April 2013. Nowadays I spend my days playing other games, reading loads of stuff and writing the occassional blog post about it. Enjoy!